How to Eliminate Innovation Obstacles

Innovation — whether in business, technology or health care delivery — is about figuring out how to do something in a new and better way. To succeed we must overcome challenges and obstacles, and one of the most common challenges is the unknown. Fortunately there are methods and tools for gaining most of the knowledge necessary to innovate; we will discuss some of them in this post. Into the Unknown By definition, when you’re innovating, you’re doing something that hasn’t been done before — if not ever, at least by your organization. These things for which you and your organization lack experience represent a deficit that is part and parcel of innovation. This deficit has nothing to do with intelligence or work ethic. What we’re talking about is knowledge that arises from relevant experience. Some call this deficit ignorance, which it is. A less dramatic term is knowledge deficit. Knowledge deficits rarely arise when our organizations are in comfortable routines. In many organizations there is limited experience with overcoming knowledge deficits because what some think of as innovation is really refinement and incremental evolution of earlier, more substantive innovations. In some cases it seems there is no recognition that there are indeed gaps in the knowledge required to accomplish some new goal (see the Dunning-Kruger effect). As a result of quirky predispositions, I’ve had a lot of experience with knowledge deficits. Starting in t...
Source: Medical Connectivity Consulting - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Connectivity Patient Safety Product Development Strategy & Planning Source Type: blogs